Star on home court

Joel Przybilla divides focus between Blazers and his family

By kerry eggers

The Portland Tribune, Mar 25, 2008, Updated Oct 30, 2009 (4 Reader comments)

JIM CLARK / TRIBUNE PHOTO

Blazer Joel Przybilla and wife Noelle show off son Anthony, 2, in their Tualatin home. After bouncing around some in the NBA, the center and his family are happy he is now a fixture with the Blazers.

Joel and Noelle Przybilla live in a spacious four-bedroom, 3,800-square-foot home in a new subdivision in Tualatin.

Make no mistake about it, though. Anthony Przybilla runs the household.

Not in a bad way. The 2-year-old is simply the apple of the eye of his parents, a pretty good gig for an only (so far) child.

“We’re lucky,” Noelle says as Anthony plays with an array of toys spread out in the living room. “He’s a great kid. Hardly ever cries.”

Fatherhood has been a fulfilling experience for Joel, the Trail Blazer center who will celebrate his sixth wedding anniversary this summer.

“It’s been the best,” he says, confessing, “Everything revolves around Anthony.

“But it has changed my life. I come home after a game or practice, he puts a smile on my face no matter what.”

Sign Joel up for more kids, incidentally.

“I’m planning on it,” he nods.

That is, when Noelle is ready.

“Eventually,” she says with a laugh. “It’s hard. During the season, Anthony and I go home (to Wisconsin) – we’re back and forth. When we’re here, Joel is away a lot and I’m alone … it’s not like I have family or friends here to watch him so I can run here or there. Anthony is with me 24 hours a day, so if I had him and a baby? Wow.”

Not that Noelle is complaining. She’s a hands-on mother who brings Anthony to games at the Rose Garden on a regular basis.

“If I’m there, he’s there,” Noelle says. “He watches the game. He looks down on the court and is like, ‘Hey, there’s Dad.’ ”

Many families of professional athletes hire nannies, even if the mother doesn’t work. Not the Przybillas.

“People will say, ‘You could just pay a nanny for like 40 hours a week,’ ” Noelle says. “But don’t you want to spend the time with your child? I’ll be gone from him for two hours and I miss him.”

Nor do the Przybillas have a housekeeper.

“If we had someone clean the house, you know what she’d do?” Joel asks, grinning at his wife. “She’d come in and clean up after them.”

“I’m a bit of a neat freak,” she agrees. “But I don’t believe in paying people for things I can do myself.”

Joel notes that Noelle also clips coupons.

“She’s thrifty,” he says, a measure of pride in his voice.

If there’s a spender in the family, it’s Joel.

“We kind of joke about it,” Noelle says. “Joel will buy clothes, and he hides them on me. Usually it’s the wife hiding the shopping bags under the bed. I’ll go in the guest room, and there’ll be a box from the Big & Tall store.”

“I’m careful with money,” he says, “but I’ll spend a little on clothes, because we didn’t have a lot growing up. Plus, it was tough to find clothes to fit me.”

Midwest roots intertwine

The Przybillas are a product of their Midwest, small-town upbringing. Noelle grew up in Big Bend, Wis., population 1,300, about 20 minutes outside of Milwaukee. Joel is a native of Monticello, Minn., a town of about 10,000 not far from Minneapolis.

If you listen closely, you can detect a trace of a Midwest accent in both of them (“it’s a-bote 45 minutes away,” “back in Minn-e-soda”).

They met in 2000, during Joel’s rookie season with the Milwaukee Bucks. Noelle was a student at Alverno, a Catholic women’s college in Milwaukee, on her way to a triple degree (nursing, business management, communications).

“I gave her my phone number,” Joel says. “She never called back.”

A few weeks later, though, they ran into each other in a bar. This time, he was smart enough to get her number.

They started dating, got engaged that summer and were married the following year.

“After I gave him a chance, I found out he was such a sweetheart, such a nice guy,” Noelle says. “I think he liked that I gave him a run for his money.”

“For me, it was love at first sight, I guess,” Joel says bashfully.

They’re a tight couple, with Joel often deferring to Noelle in family decisions because he has so much faith and trust in her judgment. He is by nature shy. She is the more outgoing of the two.

There isn’t a dose of big shot in the Przybillas. They have plenty of money, but you’d never know it.

“I feel like we’re … well, we’re just normal people,” Noelle says. “I don’t feel any different than anybody else.”

In Portland, of course, the Przybillas are celebrities.

“I’m used to the attention,” she says. “It’s been that way ever since I’ve known him. He would like to hide from that stuff, except he can’t hide.”

Pretty hard to, when you’re 7-foot-1.

“People know him here,” Noelle says, “but a lot of people, just because he’s tall, assume he’s a professional basketball player. Since the day I met him, anywhere we go, people notice. Usually, he’s fine. Sometimes, he gets that look on his face like, ‘Don’t talk to me.’ ”

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